Blogs For You
I write blogs because I’ve run across therapists who had no idea what to say to a widow or grieving person, or what dementia looks like. The collective “wisdom” about grief is not wisdom, and most of it is not research supported or intuitive. It’s simply what we have been told. Most grieving people will not go to a support group or a therapist. It’s really hard to get people into the help they need. What makes this worse is the well-meaning, ill equipped therapists who don’t understand grief, who, because of their lack of experience or ignorance make it intolerable for a grieving person to ever return to therapy or reach out for support again. Therapists miss dementia because they do not know what they are seeing and hearing and misdiagnose when they could be part of truly helping a family get the help they need.
We need to change the knowledge.
We need to blow up the rules.
We need clinicians who can talk knowledgably about the dying process, understand how to address grief, and never, ever tell a client that they are going to grieve forever.
Do you really want them to?
Please come back here often- I blog about all of it, and more!
Doing Grief Right
Every time I come to a conference I am touched by the stories I hear, particularly from other therapists. Today was one of those moments. I met...
When your client is facing a chosen death
I have had contact with a number of people online who have faced a loved one with terminal illness and chose to end their life before their illness...
Grieving lost sexual intimacy
My recent research has been about grieving sexuality during a terminal illness and after the death of an intimate partner. There is very little...
Being the therapist on the first anniversary of violent tragedies
Next week will be a difficult anniversary day for many people in my community. We are one county away from Las Vegas, and it is considered almost...
When your grieving client is triggered by a national event: Five things you can do
I spent part of this weekend watching all the coverage of John McCain’s death, mixed on Sunday with the shooting in Jacksonville. It was Loss 101...
Grief for Therapists – when it happens to you
When grief happens - and you still have to be a therapist I had the opportunity to record a podcast with Kelly Higdon, LMFT, of Zinny Me. We talked...
More, and more, and more shootings
It’s been such a long two weeks, hasn’t it? Parkland, Florida. A university yesterday. Families. Domestic violence. Two more schools after Parkland....
What Therapists Say Matters To Our Grieving Clients
I’m sure you just read that title and replied in your head “Of course it does!” Why would I even think about writing a blog for therapists...